Alexander Natividad - Week #12 - "Trust Me"
“A 400-meter run can’t be that bad, trust me,” my friend told me in my freshman year.
We’ve all been influenced before, in one way or another; through family, friends, teachers, coaches, and popular figures we look up to. Influence can be good or bad, depending on the result of our actions.
Branching off of my last blog, I briefly mentioned how external factors play a role in shaping our decisions. For instance, I would not take my daily walk outside if it is raining at the time; I would either walk later or do some physical activity from home during that period of time. I talked about time and weather, but I never talked about people.
So allow me to introduce (arguably) the most influential external factor of them all: humans.
The closer someone is to you, the greater influence they have on you. Why? I’m not a psychologist, but I assume it is because you would trust someone’s advice more if you’re close to them, whether you’ve known them for a long time or recently started a new friendship.
We influence each other in multiple ways every single day, through school activities or interests outside of school. A few weeks ago, we all turned in our course registrations for next year, and I’m willing to bet a house that we did our best to fill in open electives with classes that our friends chose.
It happens online as well. A lot of social media content on people’s pages are suggested from what other people enjoy as well. Yes, the algorithm also generates these posts based on personal interests, but many videos come from the interest of friends. Instagram’s feature where you can solely watch videos that your other friends leave a “like” on is one of the best examples of how we get pulled into this.
Of course, not everything ends in sunshine and rainbows. Sometimes, people get persuaded to something although they may feel uncomfortable or unsafe. Even in a safe situation, change doesn’t always help certain people. In sports, players get traded to change their scenery and play alongside other athletes. The main reasons why this does not always work is because they either get injured or the team’s playstyle or system is not right for them; ironically, their old team’s style was a perfect fit.
It also might end up poorly for someone who always follows the path of others, which is why critical thinking and making your own decisions is vital to being successful in life. Going back to the opening quote, I think I made a good choice at the time to run with my friend’s idea of doing the 400, opening up my personality to the 100 various athletes on the track team.
Even though it’s good to step outside of your comfort zone, it’s better to start small and to keep in mind: how high you’re willing to go can also be how far you’re willing to fall.
Hello Alexander, I had a lot of questions regarding your beliefs, such as if initially you are agnostic? This has quite an impact on the lens to purview your blog. If the initial premise is considered to be true, we would be able to presume that all actions are determined by previous endeavors and those by previous in succession, eventually but this regards the point as moot. If seen from the other lens, if you are free to make decisions about your actions then the actions of others can not have a truly meaningful effect on you! Either way, it's just rhetoric and will not provide use unless reexamined under a greater standard of rigor.
ReplyDeleteHi Alexander! I like how you brought up the power of trust (and how some people can abuse it). The way you discussed how humans can influence other humans reminded me of a scene from the TV show White Collar, where the main character Neal Caffrey accurately guesses the number someone else was thinking of. In truth, he planted it in their head by manipulating them to think of an odd number, then counting off smaller numbers to discourage them from selecting those. It goes to show how easily we can be impacted by others’ decisions—regardless of whether we trust them or not.
ReplyDeleteWhen we do trust people, it’s even more effortless to influence or be influenced. Your point about us registering for courses that our friends were in was definitely accurate. Peer pressure can be harmful and downright dangerous sometimes, but I’m glad your 400-meter run worked out and got you onto the track team.